Tag: Patanijali

Part II Of The Debt I Owe to Yoga

This is the second part of a series entitled The Debt I Owe to Yoga, subtitled Have you worked your limbs today? Part one was an introduction to yoga, some of its cultural impact, a brief history, and how it has affected me personally.

To explain the spiritual significance and the totality of what yoga really is one must, of necessity visit Patanjali. It was he who classified yoga at approximately 200-400 BCE, (some documents say 150 BCE) because by that time the practice, had gone into all different directions. He organized it into a format known as the Yoga Sutras. His “eight limbs” of yoga still inform the practice today and discuss posture, breathing, meditation and correct living. He is known as “the father of modern yoga.”